A conventional circuit board includes circuit board components, such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), mounted to the circuit board. Such mounting secures the circuit board components to the circuit board and provides electrical contact between the circuit board components and the circuit board. Certain conventional circuit board components, such as ball grid array (BGA) devices) have an array of solder balls located on an attachment surface of the circuit board component (e.g., a surface of the circuit board component that attaches to the circuit board). The array of solder balls of the circuit board component attaches to contact pads, for example, located on the circuit board.
A conventional ASIC has an attachment surface having a relatively small surface area (e.g., 2025 mm2). The conventional ASIC utilizes an array of solder balls having a ball diameter of 1 mm, thereby allowing placement of a relatively large number of solder balls on the attachment surface of the ASIC. In the array, the solder balls are distributed across the attachment surface of the ASIC in an array pattern of 50 columns having 50 solder balls per column. Such an array or grid configuration (50×50) results in 2500 solder balls in the array for mechanical attachment of the ASIC to the circuit board (e.g., attachment to the contact pads of the circuit board) and for electrical contact between the ASIC and the circuit board.
In a typical solder ball array, the solder balls of the ASIC allow transmission of data signals between the circuit board and the ASIC and allow transmission of power supply signals from the circuit board to the ASIC in order to power the ASIC during operation. Approximately 40–50% of the solder balls (e.g., 1000–1250 solder balls) of the conventional solder ball array are configured for carrying power supply signals from the circuit board to the ASIC. Approximately 50–60% of the remaining solder balls (e.g., 1250–1500 solder balls) of the conventional solder ball array, therefore, are configured to carry data signals between the circuit board and the ASIC.